Birmingham is closing in on its first real set of rules for short-term rentals after the City Council's Committee of the Whole voted 4-1 to advance a proposed ordinance that would require permits, business licenses and liability insurance for every Airbnb and Vrbo operating in the city. The proposal now heads to the full council for a vote on Oct. 27.
The committee's action, reported by WBHM, caps roughly two years of work by the council on how to regulate the city's fast-growing short-term rental market. Under the plan, operators would need a short-term rental permit, a city business license and proof of liability insurance before renting out a property, and the city would inspect those properties to confirm compliance.
Operators would also have to certify that their properties comply with applicable homeowners association rules and follow occupancy and safety requirements, according to the station's report. Perhaps the most consequential piece: every short-term rental would need a responsible party able to show up at the property within 30 minutes whenever police, code enforcement or another city official calls.
Why City Officials Want a Faster Response
That 30-minute requirement traces directly back to real incidents. Birmingham police recorded 231 calls to short-term rental properties between Jan. 1 and Sept. 27 this year alone, with most involving noise, parking complaints, welfare checks and general disturbances, per the same WBHM account.
Deputy Chief Bo Hackel said the lack of a clear point of contact at these properties can create problems when something more serious happens. Officers reportedly struggled to reach anyone connected to certain short-term rental units during a gas-leak evacuation, according to the station's reporting — the kind of scenario officials say the new responsible-party rule is designed to prevent. Under the plan, that contact information would be entered into Birmingham's computer-aided dispatch system, letting police quickly determine whether a given rental is properly permitted.
Enforcement Details Still Being Worked Out
The proposed ordinance would let the city act against operators for regulatory violations, criminal activity, false information on a permit application, or situations that turn a property into a public nuisance, the station reports. City staff have agreed to develop clearer guidelines for suspending or revoking permits, since councilors want a specific violation matrix rather than vague standards.
One idea floated during discussions was treating three noise complaints within 12 months as a potential trigger for enforcement action, though that threshold has not been finalized, the outlet notes. More serious incidents could still prompt faster action regardless of complaint counts. Councilors have also been weighing whether operators who run large portfolios — one with roughly 125 units was cited in discussions — should need a permit for every single property or could instead qualify for a broader enterprise license, with city staff agreeing to keep working on that licensing language.
Zoning Fight Pushed to Later
What the ordinance notably does not settle is zoning — where short-term rentals can legally operate within city limits. The mayor's office has pushed to move forward with licensing and enforcement first and tackle zoning as a separate process later, one that could take several months, per WBHM's reporting. Councilor Josh Vasa has argued the opposite: that Birmingham should be addressing short-term rentals through zoning controls from the outset.
An earlier draft of the ordinance, reported by BirminghamWatch in December, would have capped short-term rentals at 1% of residential units in most eligible zoning districts and required 1,000 feet of spacing between them, along with a rule requiring a responsible party within 10 miles of each unit. Whether those specific provisions survive into the version the full council votes on this month remains unresolved. Accessory dwelling units, meanwhile, have already been removed from the list of structures barred from short-term rental use, with city staff saying earlier town-hall feedback showed residents wanted the option to rent out ADUs.
How Birmingham's Market Compares
BirminghamWatch's report cited an internet-scraping count of 1,815 short-term rentals listed on Airbnb and Vrbo across the city as of January 2025, though the outlet did not detail the methodology behind that figure. At the time of that report, neither Birmingham nor the state of Alabama regulated short-term rentals directly, while suburbs including Homewood, Hoover, Trussville and Mountain Brook already restrict the practice.
By March, ABC 33/40 reported that Birmingham's existing ordinance did regulate short-term rentals in some form, even as city leaders debated whether tighter adjustments were needed — a shift from the no-regulation picture described months earlier. Some residents told the station that rapid short-term rental growth may be shrinking the pool of properties available for long-term occupancy. Former councilor Valerie Abbott told AL.com she believes investors buying up residences and converting them into short-term rentals has contributed to the city's population decline.
Birmingham isn't alone in wrestling with this. Montgomery's city council passed its own short-term rental ordinance in September, requiring a separate business license for every rental property, posted fire-escape safety plans, and giving existing operators 90 days to come into compliance, according to WSFA. In Mobile, tensions over enforcement surfaced in July when a homeowner was denied a short-term rental permit, sparking debate over whether that city's rules are too restrictive or too loosely enforced.
The city's zoning division has separately said it is reviewing regulations to address the growing popularity of platforms like Airbnb, per the City of Birmingham zoning page. Whether the full council adopts, amends or rejects the licensing proposal on Oct. 27 — and when the separate zoning debate gets resolved — remains to be seen.
